I’ve decided to commit career suicide. Okay, that is a bit extreme. I’ve done a SS class on Revelation. There are just some books of the Bible that should be tackled in a Sunday School setting instead of a sermon series. I couldn’t imagine preaching on Revelation. There are some parts that I haven’t settled on in terms of their original meaning. A Sunday School course allows you to offer up various viewpoints and not necessarily commit to one. I did approach the course with a mix of partial preterism and idealism. I think both are far more helpful than the historicist and futurist views. But some passages just seem to defy all categories.
The Song of Songs is another one of those books that is best done in such a setting but for different reasons. The content is more appropriate for an adult audience. I’m amazed at how anachronistic some approaches to the book are. They despise a more literal approach. I think the book is a series of love poems (not a sex manual or relationship guide). They do have a typological function pointing us to our relationship with Christ, but we must be careful not to eroticize that. It does have plenty of references to sexual activities in veiled fashion. As a part of the canon, it points us to a redeemed, or holy, sexuality. Much of the Scriptures offer warnings about our disordered sexuality. This is largely a re-ordered sexuality. Not perfectly though.
Here is what I’m using:
Song of Songs by Tremper Longman III in the New International Commentary on the Old Testament Series. This is rated as one of the top commentaries by Keith Mathison and Tim Challies. The opening chapter, which focuses on a history of interpretation, is very helpful in setting the stage for the study.
The Message of the Song of Songs by Tom Gledhill in the Bible Speaks Today series. It also appears on Challies’ and Mathison’s lists. I wasn’t too impressed with the chapter covering introductory matters. It did make some good points about the danger of removing the veil so to speak. People will have to be careful with what they learn and hear lest they plunge themselves into sexual sin by obsessing on something. This is something Mark Driscoll should have paid attention to.
Song of Songs by Dennis Kinlaw in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. I bought the volume for the commentaries on Psalms and Proverbs by VanGemeren and Ross respectively. I have yet to begin reading this. I’d better get on that!
Solomon on Sex by Joseph Dillow. Yes, the Song is not a sex manual but there may be some helpful material in there. I know I liked during my counseling coursework. It has been hidden in notebooks for years and has finally been unearthed. This is out of print and difficult to find. We purchased a photocopied version for our coursework.
Communion with God by John Owen. I read this years ago and remember that he refers to the Song quite a bit. It is not a commentary on the Song. I’ll pretend it functions typologically for my purposes.
Discovering Christ in the Song of Solomon by Don Fortner. Don and I will not agree on much. He uses an allegorical interpretive method, making it about Christ and the Church directly. There is no “original meaning” and then seeing it through the lens of Christ. He jumps right to Jesus. I can tell there is much that is true, but that is not what the text (in my opinion) is saying. There are some statements that I would deem dangerous or controversial. For instance, he takes her statement “I am black and comely” to mean she is both sinner and saint. I find equating black with sin to be troubling. I don’t recall any other portion of Scripture doing this.
Perhaps I’ll be back to update this when I’m done. I can only read so many books to prepare for the lessons without driving myself insane. I read far too many on Revelation (lesson learned!).
Cavman Considers 
This should be an exciting study.
Here’s two more for the too many book list –
A Song for Lovers by S. Craig Glickman. and Ecclesiastes &the Song of Songs by Kathleen Buswell Nielson. Glickman is a very enjoyable read. Nielson’s is not only from a womans perspective but is a filled with numerous questions to consider about the Song of Songs as one works through the book. Both, I think, carry a good approach to the marriage/love poem idea.
Had a class from Fred Putnam that he taught at Westminster that would be helpful too if you can get your hands on that.
Keep us up to date on this study will ya Steve.
Rob
Maybe I ought to get KBN’s study to supplement my questions in SS.
” There are some statements that I would deem dangerous or controversial. For instance, he takes her statement “I am black and comely” to mean she is both sinner and saint. I find equating black with sin to be troubling. I don’t recall any other portion of Scripture doing this.”
Isaiah 1:18 equates the colour of white with sainthood…………………
“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.”
Okay Bob, your comments are unclear. Of whom are you speaking?
Caveman,your comment in regards to Fortner’s book, “Discovering Christ in Song of Solomon” I placed in quotation marks at the beginning of my comment to you. I do not see the danger, as you do, in that DF interprets the color of black with sin. The bible consistently uses the color of white with purity, holiness, sinlessness etc. We understand black to be in direct contrast to white. Pastor Fortner is no racist, I can assure you. ( if that is what you were implying when you said his statement was dangerous and controversial).
I’m not implying he is a racist. but racists use such expressions to further their view. Her darkness, in the Song, is due to her working in the fields which is contrasted with the relatively pale skin of the city girls.
Allegory ignores context and is itself a dangerous form of interpretation. We can’t skip over the original meaning right to Jesus. I think Fortner’s book is a bad example of how to interpret ANY part of Scripture.
You may notice there is no “e” in the nickname.
Oh, please note that Isaiah uses “scarlet” not black to contrast with white. So ….